Sunday, January 18, 2015

Re-"Birth of a Nation" at the White House — Obama falls into history trap trying to “bitch slap” Hollywood over “Selma” snub — Instead, it’s a new “Birth of a Nation" moment at the White House

Centennial of "Birth of a Nation" — One hundred years of political showings of movies at the White House — “BIRTH OF A NATION” - 1915 — “SELMA” - 2015 Once again Obama wades into a national racial incident by pouring gasoline on the fire — this time over the “Oscars”Virtual segregation at Obama’s White House screening shows that George Wallace is winning NOT Martin Luther King

“Birth of a Nation” has been recognized as a milestone in American movie-making for almost a century — “Selma,” so far not so much. So, now it looks like that will be part of the ongoing “national debate” on problem of “racism” according to Obama and his top race relations adviser, Al Sharpton. I

What to do ? What to do ? — Have a showing of “Selma” at the White House — BRILLIANT !

In fact, right after the 2015 "Oscar" nominations were announced, Sharpton called the “Selma” snub “...an emergency....” and the White House quickly scheduled the screening of "Selma" with several of its principals in attendance — and nobody else. Didn't anybody tell the President that Hollywood has been one of his most loyal and servile support groups ? Not good enough ! No personal nominations for black actors ! Not enough diversity ! Sharpton's take must be the White House take: Everybody knows about Hollywood, "...the higher up you go, the whiter it gets..."

According to CNN, “It seems President Barack Obama is siding with the movie critics [Sharpton ?], not the Academy, when it comes to the movie "Selma." *** Obama [hosted] cast and crew members of the Martin Luther King biopic for a screening at the White House on Friday evening, one day after the critically acclaimed movie was snubbed as Oscar nominations were handed out ....” (See “'Selma' screening at White House on Friday” by Jeremy Diamond, CNN/ News - politics [http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/16/politics/selma-screening-wh/]). The other media coverage of the event on Friday was similar ( See e.g., “Obama holds White House screening of Oscar-snubbed film ‘Selma’ ” reported by Reuters, 1/16/15, Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/16/us-usa-obama-selma-idUSKBN0KP2AZ20150116]). The Reuters report indicated that “The president was bringing in Oprah Winfrey, Common, David Oyelowo, Tim Roth [who played George Wallace in the movie] and other cast members for a screening of the film in the White House family theater. *** Another featured guest was Georgia Democratic Representative John Lewis, who was beaten by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma when he and Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists were marching to Montgomery in March 1965.”

Interestingly, most of the MSM coverage of this momentous White House movie event were filed before the event. The post-event stories contained no new or anecdotal material for a very good reason, “The screening itself was closed to the press....” (For post-event stories, see e.g., “Oprah Winfrey, Ava Duvernay attend White House screening of 'Selma' ” by Ted Johnson [in “Inside Track” by Gayle Fee], 1/17/15, Boston Herald/ BostonHerald.com - Inside Track
[http://www.bostonherald.com/inside_track/celebrity_news/2015/01/oprah_winfrey_ava_duvernay_attend_white_house_screening_of_selma]; also “NEWS/ President Barack Obama Hosts Selma Screening at the White House: Oprah Winfrey, Common & More Attend” by Bruna Nessif, 1/16/15, “E”/ Eonline.com [http://www.eonline.com/news/615923/president-barack-obama-hosts-selma-screening-at-the-white-house-oprah-winfrey-common-more-attend]).

ALL WHITE SCREENING AT WHITE HOUSE 1915 — ALMOST ALL BLACK SCREENING AT WHITE HOUSE 2015 ! ! ! IS THAT PROGRESS ? IS THAT WHAT MLK WANTED ?

So who really won since the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965, Martin Luther King who saw “...the Promised Land...” as “colored” and “white” together — or Alabama Governor George Wallace, who said “Segregation now, segregation forever...” ? Right now, there seems to be little to no doubt about it.

EPIPHENOMENON OF >>> LIFE IMITATING ART IMITATING LIFE <<< IN A COMMEMORATIVE EVENT THAT WAS PART PR AND PART OF HALF A CENTURY OF THE DECONSTRUCTIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE “POLITICS OF DISCONTENT”

On Sunday "Selma" producer Oprah Winfrey marched along with the movie’s director Ava DuVernay and actor David Oyelowo, who played Martin Luther King in that movie, along with hundreds of others who were present at the bridge with no apparent connection to the movie. Winfrey praised the 1965 marchers for their courage in meeting fierce opposition on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma — scene of Sunday's remembrance march ( See “Martin Luther King holiday: 'Selma' stars, Oprah march in Alabama as nation pays tribute” from Associated Press, 1/19/15, Fox News [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/19/selma-actors-lead-re-enactment-165-march-on-eve-mlk-holiday/]).

"Selma" chronicled turbulent events leading up to the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the subsequent passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Winfrey played activist Annie Lee Cooper in the movie, which was nominated for two Oscars, in categories of best picture and best original song.

Also during Sunday's march in Selma, Common and John Legend performed their Oscar-nominated song "Glory" from the film “Selma”as marchers crested the top of the bridge as the sun set. Common had a part in the movie and said that song sought to show the link between the struggle of the past and today's injustices. "We are the ones that can change the world," Common said afterward. "It is up to us, and it takes all us — black, white, Latino, Asian, native-American, whatever nationality or religious background. There is a certain togetherness that we've got to have."

On Monday, Oyelowo planned to deliver a holiday tribute to King at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

With so much riding on the success of their movie, one wonders where the tributes to Martin Luther King end, and where the current public relations and "Oscar" push for the movie “Selma” takeover.

However, all of it shows that half a century isn’t enough to solve the problems or satisfy certain groups that pushed the so-called “Civil Rights” agenda of 1965 and are still pushing it in 2015. Fifty years later, however, the target isn’t “Jim Crow” laws in the South, but law enforcement and the criminal justice system across the entire United States, and recently even the “lack of diversity” among the cabal that makes the "Oscar" selections in Hollywood.

To: Whoever made the ridiculous comment above:"...umm, no one around here likes that song. so go whistle Dixie somewhere else."

YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!

THAT COMMENT IS SERIOUSLY UN-AMERICAN IN SO MANY SERIOUS WAYS.

Is your slogan a paraphrase of JFK’s famous utterance in the surrounded Berlin of 1963; except now it’s: “Ich bein ein Talibaner....”

I hope you don't have an AK-47, because it looks like you are cut from the very same cloth as the "extremist terrorists" that killed all those folks at "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris earlier this month.

For the real Americans, who love the song, “Dixie” — Just like “Swanee River” [“Old Folks at Home”] that was written by Pennsylvanian Stephen Collins Foster; “Dixie” has been attributed to another northerner, Daniel Decatur Emmett, who hailed from Ohio [although his claim on the song had been disputed; and a reliable provenance for “Dixie” cannot be confirmed]. It was a popular tune all across the pre-Civil War United States, North-South-East and -West. Some have reported that “Dixie” was a favorite tune to President Abraham Lincoln; and that Lincoln had it played at some of his political rallies, even shortly before his death at the announcement of General Robert E. Lee's surrender.

About Me

I formerly have commented on various political blogs concerning Republican politics. Although the focus of my political commentary has been on the Brooklyn GOP and other aspects of politics in Brooklyn, I have also posted commentary about national matters.
If you wish to contact Galewyn Massey directly, please, Email to galewynmasban@gmail.com